OOooookaay.........get this:   The Clown represents and emulates Alex's father, who she worshipped but may also have been afraid of---she may have suppressed that he was in fact the car bomber, who blew both himself and his wife, and was supposed to have blown ALEX up, too---remember as he is reading to her he says, "Nothing will tear this family apart".   We can only surmise that Alex's father knew about her mom Caroline and Evan's affair.   But Alex escaped because she was chasing after her balloon as they were calling her to the car.  

Gene is Alex's "guardian angel", inasmuch as he not only saved her in 1981, but he also saved/comforted her as a child following the blast--he is the one holding her hand in the flashbacks, not Evan.  There is a thread on Railway Arms that compares Gene's hand to the hand in the flashbacks, same one, the double-jointed thumbs are key.  Gene knows about the blast ahead of time because of  2008/1981 Alex who convinces the team to follow up on these murders that have not yet occurred--hence the trailer for next week's ep. We can conclude from this that Gene MUST be real. 

However, how the time-travel fits into it, whether Alex was really shot in 2008, or what the deal was with that random gunshot heard just before Molly steps out from under the docks still confounds me. 

But that is what I have right now.  Any takers?

Jen.